If you're job hunting right now and it feels harder than it used to, you're not imagining it.
A few years ago, the market was tilted in your favour. In much of Europe, if you had the skills and a solid CV, you'd get interviews. For many roles, the challenge for companies was finding anyone who fit.
Look at the US and UK — often the canaries in the coal mine — and you see it clearly:
- A Reuters story followed a US bootcamp grad who sent out 600+ applications with zero interviews.
- The Guardian says graduate roles in the UK are down a third, as AI replaces entry-level tasks.
Here in the Nordics, we still see demand for deep specialists — the kind of roles where you have to attract passive candidates. But for many jobs? The inbound quality is staggering. One founder in Oslo told me their last marketing role had "ten people we'd have been lucky to hire in 2019," plus hundreds of good-but-not-as-great applications.
The quality bar is higher because the talent pool is stronger. It's not that you're not good enough — it's that more people are.
That's the real shift. Global layoffs, remote work, and yes, AI tools that help candidates present themselves better — all pouring high-quality players into the market.
AI is a tool — for everyone
Candidates use it to polish CVs, write better cover letters, and research roles. Employers use it to filter, rank, and speed through applications.
That means even great candidates can disappear in the noise. Not because they're unqualified, but because the pile of qualified people is taller than it's been in years.
For job seekers, the answer isn't to play the numbers game harder. It's to play the signal game — clearer positioning, sharper narratives, more direct connections. Because in this market, the difference between "no response" and "first interview" is often just being remembered.
The bottleneck is quality, not volume
Recruiters in Oslo, Stockholm, and London all say the same thing: they're seeing more excellent candidates for each role than at any point in the past five years.
We've been running job scoping, screening, and shortlisting for a mix of growth companies lately, and the numbers are striking. Recent roles have seen hundreds of applicants each — 433 for a fullstack position, 331 for frontend, 298 for designer, 311 for marketing.
What's surprising isn't just the volume, but the sheer quality. Even after our AI filters out half based on hard experience, you're still left with hundreds of relevant, competent people vying for the same spot.
"It's rarely because something is wrong. It's because others are exceptionally strong.
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That's exactly what we're seeing in today's market. This week alone, I reviewed a few hundred profiles and kept thinking, "this is a good one." But compared to the top 30, most won't even get a call.
Signals from the market
- "From Bootcamp to Bust: How AI is Upending the Software Development Industry" followed Jonathan Kim, who applied to 600+ software engineering jobs and received no offers.
- Revelio Labs data shows a 31% decline in openings for roles involving AI-exposable tasks since the release of ChatGPT in 2022.
- Graduate vacancies in the UK are down 33% year-on-year, at the lowest point in seven years.
What this means for job seekers
You're competing in a deeper talent pool than at any point in recent memory. That means showing your skills and experience as clearly as possible, finding warm connections that help you rise above the noise, and protecting your energy through the grind.
The high bar isn't going away. But with sharper positioning and strategic outreach, you can still clear it. In this climate, job seekers win by playing smart — not hard.